Categories > Celebrities > Panic! At The Disco > You Stole My Breath
Twenty-Five
0 reviewsFACT: This was the last of the merry days. This was the calm before the storm. The still before the quake.
1Ambiance
This sure has been a long time coming. I hope you're still around to watch Cassia's story play out. This is far from over.
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FACT: This was the last of the merry days. This was the calm before the storm. The still before the quake.
“What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.” Brendon said with all the bravado of George Bailey in the infamous scene of It’s A Wonderful Life.
“I’ll take it.” Regina echoed popping another piece of popcorn into her mouth. The entire movie had been progressing like this, the two of them, just a bowl of popcorn and a knit blanket between them reciting movie lines in the darkened den of Brendon parent’s house. The simplicity yet tradition of the Christmas classic had been the very balance of celebrating that had been searching for. A perfect moment stumbled on purely because of the lack of options, even the lightest dusting of snow in Las Vegas pretty much shuts the place down.
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A hum of Christmas carols echoed down the hall from Cassia’s bedroom. Softly she hummed a quiet version of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” as she separated each strand of tinsel for the tree. Jon checked both his watch and the time on the microwave and strained to hear Cassia’s quiet song over the popcorn that clicked in preparation.
Cassia smiled when Jon caught her eye reentering the living room. He sat on the edge of the couch and squinted as he attempted to thread fishing wire through the fine eye of a needle. “You know, we never had a real tree.” Cassia told him admiring their work decorating the tree so far, “It was always plastic, or fiber optic, and all the ornaments matched. We always hired a decorator that was required to adhere to whatever that year’s theme was. This...” She gestured to the real Douglas Fir they had set up near the window, “This is Christmas!”
“I’m glad you like it.” Jon smiled beginning to string individual popcorn kernels onto the string.
“It’s perfect. And these ornaments...” She carefully fingered each handmade ornaments she didn’t recall making throughout her childhood in the first place, “I can’t believe you were able to get these from my parents...especially after the other night.”
“It took a little convincing.” He smirked.
“Thank you.” She smiled leaning down to kiss his cheek.
Jon checked his watch once more and with a careful sigh put the bowl of popcorn down onto the couch cushion next to him. He took Cassia’s hand and whispered an almost silent, “Follow me.”
Knotting her brow, Cassia hesitantly followed him out of the apartment and down the short hallway. While they typically took the elevator down the three stories to the buildings main door, Jon led her toward the stairwell.
“What are we doing?” She asked several times before they reached the buildings side door. But Jon answered each time with just a simple “You’ll see.”
Leading her under a particularly bright streetlamp Jon left his hands resting on her shoulders. And they stood waiting in quiet anticipation as a group of twelve composed themselves into two precise lines beneath the very same street light. The women, down to the littlest girl of only 6 years, were dressed in petticoats, long skirts, velvet capes and bonnets, while the men that accompanied them adorned suit jackets with tails and top hats. Cassia looked over her shoulder at Jon her eyes begging for an explanation. He didn’t offer anything apart from a head nod suggesting she turn her attention back toward the group just as they began a light and sparkling version of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.
“You did this?” Cassie smiled.
Jon tightened his embrace around her, “You wanted Christmas.” He explained.
“You’re incredible.” She whispered.
“From now on our troubles will be miles away.” He sang quietly in her ear along with the carolers.
And in that moment it didn’t matter that her family didn’t approve. It didn’t matter that their relationship could be traced back to a drunken one night stand. It didn’t even matter that had they both been surprised by an unplanned pregnancy they would have never seen one another again. All that mattered admist yellowed street lamps, empty cars, and a neighborhood of closed doors was that they were happier together than they had ever been alone.
“Through years we all will be together, if the fates allow. Hang a shining star upon the highest bough,” Cassia leaned back and relaxed against the warmth of Jon’s body. As he continued to sing to her in a quiet husky voice she knew that this, right here, in this moment, she had found happily ever after. There was nothing that could touch them now.
“And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.”
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Stillness had come to die in the little motel room where Sabrina and Ethan had taken harbor in for the past six days. Sabrina forced herself into fitful nightmares just to pass the time alone in the dark. Ethan’s pacing was more troublesome that the gruesome thoughts that plagued her eyelids. Violence worse than any movie she had ever seen flashed in her immediate consciousness dreading what could come of the trouble Ethan only vaguely ever mentioned.
Still drifting in and out of awareness, Sabrina laid crumpled in a head on top of the polyester motel comforter. She listen carefully to Ethan’s fumbling in the bathroom, choosing to believe that he was preoccupied with something more productive than the bag of white powder that was his true companion that evening. The old boxed television that was propped in the corner was hardly the sort of twinkling light she was used to in December but the It’s A Wonderful Life broadcast was the closest she would come to the holiday spirit. And to think just 10 miles away her parents were feigning their own holiday charm at a Christmas gala attended by everyone but the two that really mattered on Christmas Eve.
Something about the urgent thumping on the door told her it wasn’t Santa Claus paying them a visit. An instinct that was proven true when the wooden door, along with brass chain that was meant to restrain it gave out to the force of six uniformed police officers who flooded into the darkened room guns drawn shouting and screaming for her to take cover on the floor.
While one officer stayed at her side, predominately to be sure she didn’t attempt to come to the aid of her husband, the rest of the flock raided the tiny tiled bathroom Ethan had been holed up inside for hours. The obvious sounds of a scuffle ensued leaving Sabrina afraid for both of their lives.
Now do recall, Sabrina Price was a girl of only 20 naïve years. Before the events of the past few weeks, she had been involved in nothing more dangerous than cheerleading camp. Before the events of the last few weeks, she had witnessed nothing more horrible than that “perfect dress” being a size too small. She lived a life of privilege and financial royalty. She was never meant to watch her husband being carted off in handcuffs.
“Logan, wait!” She called after the officer she had grown familiar with since the days after her wedding reception, “This has to be some mistake. He hasn’t done anything wrong!”
And while Ethan’s icy blue eyes grew cold in the backseat of that squad car begging for all of this to just be over, Officer Logan Stone crossed the parking lot with a swagger the conveyed both arrogance and power. “Go home now Mrs. Price.” He ordered her, “YOU are safe now.”
And through her tears and protests, the officer, her husband, and the convoy of squad cars left her barefoot crying in the exposed doorway of that dreaded motel room just as a hiss of white sparks snowed down from the broken vacancy light above her. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
------------------------
FACT: This was the last of the merry days. This was the calm before the storm. The still before the quake.
“What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.” Brendon said with all the bravado of George Bailey in the infamous scene of It’s A Wonderful Life.
“I’ll take it.” Regina echoed popping another piece of popcorn into her mouth. The entire movie had been progressing like this, the two of them, just a bowl of popcorn and a knit blanket between them reciting movie lines in the darkened den of Brendon parent’s house. The simplicity yet tradition of the Christmas classic had been the very balance of celebrating that had been searching for. A perfect moment stumbled on purely because of the lack of options, even the lightest dusting of snow in Las Vegas pretty much shuts the place down.
------------------------------
A hum of Christmas carols echoed down the hall from Cassia’s bedroom. Softly she hummed a quiet version of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” as she separated each strand of tinsel for the tree. Jon checked both his watch and the time on the microwave and strained to hear Cassia’s quiet song over the popcorn that clicked in preparation.
Cassia smiled when Jon caught her eye reentering the living room. He sat on the edge of the couch and squinted as he attempted to thread fishing wire through the fine eye of a needle. “You know, we never had a real tree.” Cassia told him admiring their work decorating the tree so far, “It was always plastic, or fiber optic, and all the ornaments matched. We always hired a decorator that was required to adhere to whatever that year’s theme was. This...” She gestured to the real Douglas Fir they had set up near the window, “This is Christmas!”
“I’m glad you like it.” Jon smiled beginning to string individual popcorn kernels onto the string.
“It’s perfect. And these ornaments...” She carefully fingered each handmade ornaments she didn’t recall making throughout her childhood in the first place, “I can’t believe you were able to get these from my parents...especially after the other night.”
“It took a little convincing.” He smirked.
“Thank you.” She smiled leaning down to kiss his cheek.
Jon checked his watch once more and with a careful sigh put the bowl of popcorn down onto the couch cushion next to him. He took Cassia’s hand and whispered an almost silent, “Follow me.”
Knotting her brow, Cassia hesitantly followed him out of the apartment and down the short hallway. While they typically took the elevator down the three stories to the buildings main door, Jon led her toward the stairwell.
“What are we doing?” She asked several times before they reached the buildings side door. But Jon answered each time with just a simple “You’ll see.”
Leading her under a particularly bright streetlamp Jon left his hands resting on her shoulders. And they stood waiting in quiet anticipation as a group of twelve composed themselves into two precise lines beneath the very same street light. The women, down to the littlest girl of only 6 years, were dressed in petticoats, long skirts, velvet capes and bonnets, while the men that accompanied them adorned suit jackets with tails and top hats. Cassia looked over her shoulder at Jon her eyes begging for an explanation. He didn’t offer anything apart from a head nod suggesting she turn her attention back toward the group just as they began a light and sparkling version of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.
“You did this?” Cassie smiled.
Jon tightened his embrace around her, “You wanted Christmas.” He explained.
“You’re incredible.” She whispered.
“From now on our troubles will be miles away.” He sang quietly in her ear along with the carolers.
And in that moment it didn’t matter that her family didn’t approve. It didn’t matter that their relationship could be traced back to a drunken one night stand. It didn’t even matter that had they both been surprised by an unplanned pregnancy they would have never seen one another again. All that mattered admist yellowed street lamps, empty cars, and a neighborhood of closed doors was that they were happier together than they had ever been alone.
“Through years we all will be together, if the fates allow. Hang a shining star upon the highest bough,” Cassia leaned back and relaxed against the warmth of Jon’s body. As he continued to sing to her in a quiet husky voice she knew that this, right here, in this moment, she had found happily ever after. There was nothing that could touch them now.
“And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.”
------------------------------
Stillness had come to die in the little motel room where Sabrina and Ethan had taken harbor in for the past six days. Sabrina forced herself into fitful nightmares just to pass the time alone in the dark. Ethan’s pacing was more troublesome that the gruesome thoughts that plagued her eyelids. Violence worse than any movie she had ever seen flashed in her immediate consciousness dreading what could come of the trouble Ethan only vaguely ever mentioned.
Still drifting in and out of awareness, Sabrina laid crumpled in a head on top of the polyester motel comforter. She listen carefully to Ethan’s fumbling in the bathroom, choosing to believe that he was preoccupied with something more productive than the bag of white powder that was his true companion that evening. The old boxed television that was propped in the corner was hardly the sort of twinkling light she was used to in December but the It’s A Wonderful Life broadcast was the closest she would come to the holiday spirit. And to think just 10 miles away her parents were feigning their own holiday charm at a Christmas gala attended by everyone but the two that really mattered on Christmas Eve.
Something about the urgent thumping on the door told her it wasn’t Santa Claus paying them a visit. An instinct that was proven true when the wooden door, along with brass chain that was meant to restrain it gave out to the force of six uniformed police officers who flooded into the darkened room guns drawn shouting and screaming for her to take cover on the floor.
While one officer stayed at her side, predominately to be sure she didn’t attempt to come to the aid of her husband, the rest of the flock raided the tiny tiled bathroom Ethan had been holed up inside for hours. The obvious sounds of a scuffle ensued leaving Sabrina afraid for both of their lives.
Now do recall, Sabrina Price was a girl of only 20 naïve years. Before the events of the past few weeks, she had been involved in nothing more dangerous than cheerleading camp. Before the events of the last few weeks, she had witnessed nothing more horrible than that “perfect dress” being a size too small. She lived a life of privilege and financial royalty. She was never meant to watch her husband being carted off in handcuffs.
“Logan, wait!” She called after the officer she had grown familiar with since the days after her wedding reception, “This has to be some mistake. He hasn’t done anything wrong!”
And while Ethan’s icy blue eyes grew cold in the backseat of that squad car begging for all of this to just be over, Officer Logan Stone crossed the parking lot with a swagger the conveyed both arrogance and power. “Go home now Mrs. Price.” He ordered her, “YOU are safe now.”
And through her tears and protests, the officer, her husband, and the convoy of squad cars left her barefoot crying in the exposed doorway of that dreaded motel room just as a hiss of white sparks snowed down from the broken vacancy light above her. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
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